[License-review] Encouraging discussion around the technicalities of licensing

[Smith, McCoy]

>>From: License-review [mailto:license-review-bounces at lists.opensource.org] On Behalf Of Lawrence Rosen
>>Sent: Wednesday, February 6, 2019 2:11 PM
>>To: 'License submissions for OSI review' <license-review at lists.opensource.org>
>>Subject: Re: [License-review] Encouraging discussion around the technicalities of licensing

McCoy Smith wrote:
> Might be time to adopt [a CoC], just to make clear what behaviors are considered inappropriate (such at comments directed at the submitter vs. comment directed at the license under consideration,

>>Remember, the recent discussion about SSPL often veered into debate about the MongoDB business model to prevent by copyleft certain types of exploitation of their software. Were those comments directed at the submitter or at the license? Does that matter, or are we being too sensitive? If you mean that ad hominem comments are (almost) never appropriate, I agree.

I’m not sure there is *any* license that does not prevent certain types of exploitation of the licensed software. Even BSD & MIT require preservation of copyright statements and preservation of the license, which precludes exploitation by not doing so.
IMO, the business model of the submitter should be completely immaterial, and the license should stand or fall based on whether it conforms to the OSD & whether the drafting is sufficiently rigorous and clear.  This is one of several propositions I proposed during my talk at CopyleftConf on Monday.

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